Claude Opus / Sonnet / Haiku family · Fable 5.1 ultra-flagship · Opus 5.5 / Sonnet 5.5 / Haiku 5.5 · 1M context · bilingual — Sources: Anthropic Claude Platform official docs Pricing · Deprecations · Models overview (synced 2026-10-27)
Direct recommendation by task type (prices in USD / 1M tokens, input/output)
Understand these patterns and instantly grasp any Claude model name
| Element | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Opus / Sonnet / Haiku | Three series: flagship strongest / balanced value / fast & budget | claude-opus-5-5, claude-sonnet-5-5, claude-haiku-5-5 |
| claude- prefix | Unified prefix for Claude API models | claude-opus-…, claude-sonnet-… |
| Fable 5 / 5.1 | 2026 super-flagship codename, stronger than Opus, priced higher; 5.1 is the newest generation (2026-09-01) | claude-fable-5, claude-fable-5-1 |
| Mythos 5 / 5.1 | Same capability & price as Fable; accessible only to invite-only Project Glasswing organizations (defensive security use cases) | claude-mythos-5, claude-mythos-5-1 |
| Version progression | Opus: 4.5 → 4.6 → 4.7 → 4.8 → 5 → 5.5; Sonnet: 4.5 → 4.6 → 5 → 5.5; Fable: 5 → 5.1; higher = newer | claude-opus-4-8 → claude-opus-5 → claude-opus-5-5，claude-fable-5 → claude-fable-5-1 |
| -YYYYMMDD snapshot | Legacy naming uses release date as version (use the dateless alias for new models) | claude-opus-4-5-20251101, claude-3-7-sonnet-20250219 |
| Dateless alias | Recommended for new models; auto-points to the latest snapshot | claude-opus-4-8 (do not append a date suffix manually) |
| 4.5+ thinking | Adaptive thinking + effort; Fable deep thinking always on | opus-4.6+/sonnet-5/sonnet-4.6 → adaptive |
Full spectrum of models currently on the API: Fable 5.1 is the 2026 super-flagship (the endgame pick when Opus 5.5 evals fall short), Opus 5.5 the officially recommended current flagship, Sonnet 5.5 balanced value, Haiku 5.5 the new fast & budget generation. All support text/image input plus PDF/long documents; output costs ~5x input; Batch at half price, cached input ~1/10. Prices in USD / 1M tokens
| Model ID | Tier | Price | Reasoning | Speed | Context | Input | Output | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| claude-fable-5-1NEW | Flagship | Best | Slow | 1M | 1M | 128K | Claude super-flagship Fable 5.1 (released 2026-09-01): the endgame pick for hardest deep reasoning / long-horizon autonomous Agentic; deep thinking always on + effort (default high); cache reads as low as $0.25/MTok; $10/$50 | |
| claude-fable-5 | Flagship | Best | Slow | 1M | 1M | 128K | Previous super-flagship Fable 5 (released 2026-06-09, Legacy): still available; superseded by 5.1 at the same price, migrate new projects to Fable 5.1; $10/$50 | |
| claude-opus-5-5NEWRec | Flagship | Best | Standard | 1M | 1M | 128K | Officially recommended default flagship (a generational upgrade over Opus 5) — the strongest for long-horizon agentic coding and knowledge work; adaptive thinking always on (effort default medium); cache hits $0.20/MTok; $4/$20 | |
| claude-opus-5Rec | Flagship | Best | Standard | 1M | 1M | 128K | Opus 5 (released 2026-07-24): a generational leap over 4.8 — the strongest Opus for deep reasoning / long-horizon Agentic / test-time compute scaling; adaptive thinking on by default (can disable at effort high or below) + optional Fast mode; $5/$25 | |
| claude-opus-4-8 | Flagship | Best | Standard | 1M | 1M | 128K | Previous Opus flagship (released 2026-05-28): strongest Opus for long-horizon autonomous Agentic / knowledge work / memory; still production-ready and supports Fast mode; upgrade to Opus 5 for new projects; $5/$25 | |
| claude-opus-4-7 | Flagship | Best | Standard | 1M | 1M | 128K | Previous-generation Opus, same request surface as 4.8; production-ready, upgrade to Opus 5 for new projects; $5/$25 | |
| claude-opus-4-6 | Flagship | Best | Standard | 1M | 1M | 128K | Opus of the 4.6 line, still available; adaptive thinking; $5/$25 | |
| claude-opus-4-5 | Flagship | Deep | Standard | 200K | 200K | 128K | Late-2025 Opus, still available; 200K context (1M via beta); thinking-budget transitional; $5/$25 | |
| claude-sonnet-5-5NEWRec | Balanced | Deep | Fast | 1M | 1M | 128K | The best combination of speed and intelligence: high value for coding / agentic; adaptive thinking (effort default high); $2/$10 | |
| claude-sonnet-5Rec | Balanced | Deep | Fast | 1M | 1M | 128K | New Sonnet: coding & Agentic near Opus at a lower price; adaptive thinking on by default + effort (default high); $2/$10 (intro price made permanent — the scheduled 2026-09-01 increase to $3/$15 was cancelled) | |
| claude-sonnet-4-6 | Balanced | Deep | Fast | 1M | 1M | 128K | Previous Sonnet, still available; 1M context; $3/$15 | |
| claude-sonnet-4-5Deprecated | Balanced | Standard | Fast | 200K | 200K | 128K | Deprecated (announced 2026-09-30, retires 2026-11-30): migrate to claude-sonnet-5-5; 200K context; $3/$15 | |
| claude-haiku-5-5NEWRec | Budget | Basic | Fastest | 1M | 1M | 128K | New-generation fastest & cheapest Haiku (released 2026-10-07): ultra-low latency for high-frequency classification / extraction / routing / summarization; context up to 1M, priced by prompt length (≤100K $0.10/$0.50, >100K $0.50/$2.50); 128K output cap; adaptive thinking (effort default medium) | |
| claude-haiku-4-5 | Budget | Basic | Fastest | 200K | 200K | 64K | Previous-generation fast & budget Haiku, still available (200K context); high-frequency classification / extraction / summarization / customer service; 64K output cap; $1/$5 |
The following Claude API models are retired (requests return 404 after retirement with no grace period); migrate as officially recommended. Source: Anthropic official deprecations page (synced 2026-10-27)
| Model ID | Lifecycle | Retirement date | Replacement | Migration advice |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| claude-opus-4-1-20250805 | Retired | 2026-08-05 | →claude-opus-4-8 | Retired; migrate directly |
| claude-opus-4-20250514 | Retired | 2026-06-15 | →claude-opus-4-8 | Retired; migrate directly |
| claude-sonnet-4-20250514 | Retired | 2026-06-15 | →claude-sonnet-5-5 | Retired; migrate directly |
| claude-3-haiku-20240307 | Retired | 2026-04-20 | →claude-haiku-4-5 | Retired; migrate directly |
| claude-3-7-sonnet-20250219 | Retired | 2026-02-19 | →claude-sonnet-5-5 | Retired; migrate directly |
| claude-3-5-haiku-20241022 | Retired | 2026-02-19 | →claude-haiku-4-5 | Retired; migrate directly |
| claude-3-opus-20240229 | Retired | 2026-01-05 | →claude-opus-4-8 | Retired; migrate directly |
| claude-3-5-sonnet-20241022 | Retired | 2025-10-28 | →claude-sonnet-5-5 | Retired; migrate directly |
| claude-3-5-sonnet-20240620 | Retired | 2025-10-28 | →claude-sonnet-5-5 | Retired; migrate directly |
| claude-3-sonnet-20240229 | Retired | 2025-07-21 | →claude-sonnet-5-5 | Retired; migrate directly |
| claude-2.1 | Retired | 2025-07-21 | →claude-opus-4-8 | Retired; migrate directly |
| claude-2.0 | Retired | 2025-07-21 | →claude-opus-4-8 | Retired; migrate directly |
Match the best model to your needs quickly
| Scenario | Recommended | Alternatives | Key capability |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chat / Writing | claude-sonnet-5-5 | claude-opus-5-5 | $2/$10 · balanced value |
| Complex reasoning / Math | claude-fable-5-1 | claude-opus-5-5 | Top |
| Coding / Agentic | claude-opus-5-5 | claude-sonnet-5-5 | Sonnet near Opus · great value |
| Extreme long-horizon autonomous tasks | claude-fable-5-1 | claude-opus-5-5 | thinking always on · effort default high |
| Long-document understanding~1M tokens | claude-opus-5-5 | claude-sonnet-5-5 | 1M context |
| Image / PDF understanding | claude-opus-5-5 | claude-sonnet-5-5 | all models |
| High-throughput, low cost | claude-haiku-5-5 | claude-sonnet-5-5 | $0.10/$0.50 · fastest |
| Low-latency realtime assistant | claude-haiku-5-5 | claude-sonnet-5-5 | Haiku fast response |
| Batch offline jobs | claude-sonnet-5-5 | claude-haiku-5-5 | Batch API at half price |